diff --git a/cluster/applications/hindsight/values.yaml b/cluster/applications/hindsight/values.yaml
index 40b04c2..db83f29 100644
--- a/cluster/applications/hindsight/values.yaml
+++ b/cluster/applications/hindsight/values.yaml
@@ -63,20 +63,35 @@ api:
     # CUT OVER to vLLM (t_5508360a, 2026-08-31): dashboard explicitly
     # approved "stop and disable llama-swap and start vLLM" as a breaking
     # change. llama-swap is now stopped+disabled on astro-orbiter; vLLM
-    # (Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-AWQ, :8000) is the permanent, boot-persistent
-    # replacement. This exact config (base URL, model name, retry-safe low
-    # concurrency) was validated end-to-end in t_e6facb19's shadow window
-    # (health, /v1/chat/completions, live hindsight_retain+recall
-    # round-trip) before that task reverted it pending this decision --
-    # now re-applied for real. See roles/deploy-vllm/README.md "Critical
-    # architectural finding" + "Consumer cutover status" for the full history.
+    # was the permanent, boot-persistent replacement (originally
+    # Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-AWQ). This exact config (base URL, model name,
+    # retry-safe low concurrency) was validated end-to-end in t_e6facb19's
+    # shadow window (health, /v1/chat/completions, live hindsight_retain+
+    # recall round-trip) before that task reverted it pending this
+    # decision -- now re-applied for real. See roles/deploy-vllm/README.md
+    # "Critical architectural finding" + "Consumer cutover status" for the
+    # full history.
+    #
+    # MODEL SWAP (t_r1d32b_swap, 2026-09-01): astro-orbiter's vLLM primary
+    # model changed from Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-AWQ to
+    # DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B-AWQ (single-model deployment; nomic-embed
+    # and Qwen3-8B-AWQ both disabled on that host). Same endpoint
+    # (http://astro-orbiter:8000/v1), same API key (vLLM instance/port
+    # unchanged) -- only the served model name changed. DeepSeek-R1 emits
+    # a <think>...</think> reasoning trace before its final answer;
+    # Hindsight's fact-extraction prompt parsing has not been specifically
+    # audited against this reasoning-model output shape -- flag for
+    # follow-up if extraction quality regresses (see README note below).
     HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_BASE_URL: "http://astro-orbiter:8000/v1"
     HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_PROVIDER: "openai"
-    HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_MODEL: "Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-AWQ"
-    # vLLM's max_model_len=8192 (role default, see deploy-vllm/defaults) is
-    # far below the 64000 default Hindsight's retain path assumes. Cap
-    # explicitly or long retains 400 with a context-length error (found +
-    # fixed in t_e6facb19's validation window).
+    HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_MODEL: "DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B-AWQ"
+    # vLLM's max_model_len is now 32768 (up from the prior 8192 role
+    # default) -- more headroom than before, but DeepSeek-R1 reasoning
+    # traces consume completion tokens before the final answer even
+    # appears, so the completion cap is left unchanged pending live
+    # verification that 4096 is enough for a real retain to complete
+    # (rather than truncating mid-<think>). Raise if extraction responses
+    # come back truncated/empty.
     HINDSIGHT_API_RETAIN_MAX_COMPLETION_TOKENS: "4096"
     # DO NOT set HINDSIGHT_API_EMBEDDINGS_* here (t_e6facb19, 2026-08-31
     # attempted this, reverted after a production incident — see below).
@@ -113,8 +128,10 @@ api:
     # 1 and pin retain to 1 as well. The upstream chart exposes these as native
     # semaphore config (HINDSIGHT_API_*_MAX_CONCURRENT); no code change needed.
     # Kept at 1 post-cutover: vLLM's single-process-per-model design is also
-    # effectively serial for a single Qwen2.5-32B instance under this GPU's
-    # VRAM budget (KV cache sized for low concurrency at max_model_len=8192).
+    # effectively serial for a single generative model instance under this
+    # GPU's VRAM budget (KV cache sized tight against the 24GB card at
+    # max_model_len=32768 for DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B-AWQ, t_r1d32b_swap
+    # 2026-09-01 — previously 8192 for Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-AWQ).
     HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_MAX_CONCURRENT: "1"
     HINDSIGHT_API_RETAIN_LLM_MAX_CONCURRENT: "1"
     # Client + per-request timeout. Default is 120s; a 29K-token retain runs